1Also another evil there is, which I saw under the sun; and certainly it is oft used with men.

2A man is, to whom God gave riches, and chattel [or substance], and honour; and nothing faileth to his soul of all things which he desireth; and God giveth not power to him, that he eat thereof, but a strange man shall devour it ¹. This is vanity, and a great wretchedness.

3If a man engendereth an hundred free sons, and hath many days of age, and his soul useth not the goods of his chattel [or substance], and wanteth burying; I pronounce of this man, that a dead-born child is better than he.

4For he cometh in vain, and goeth to darknesses; and his name shall be done away by forgetting.

5He saw not the sun, neither knew the diversity of good and of evil;

6also though he live two thousand years, and useth not [the] goods; whether all things hasten not to one place?

7All the travail of a man is in his mouth, but the soul of him shall not be [ful] filled with goods.

8What hath a wise man more than a fool? and what hath a poor man, but that he go thither, where is life?

9It is better to see that, that thou covetest, than to desire that, that thou knowest not; but also this is vanity, and presumption of spirit.

10The name of him that shall come, is called now, and it is known, that he is a man, and he may not strive in doom against a stronger than himself.

11Words be full many, and have much vanity in disputing. What need is it to a man to seek greater things than himself;

12since he knoweth not, what shall befall to him in his life, in the number of days of his pilgrimage, and in the time that passeth as shadow? either who may show to him, what thing under [the] sun shall come after him?